Crash could not have been avoided says coroner at inquest of Fareham motorhome driver

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A HORRIFIC crash involving a motorhome driver from Fareham could not have been predicted, a coroner ruled today.

Richard Granville Cooke, of Seafield Park Road, had died moments before his vehicle collided with a tipper truck on the A31, near Wimborne, Dorset.

An inquest at Bournemouth Coroner’s Court heard that the 67-year-old Royal Navy veteran had suffered a tear in his heart due to a build up of material in the artery walls seconds before the crash, killing him and causing him to swerve into the truck’s path.

Mr Cook’s three-week old Fiat Autotrail motorhome hit the yellow DAF tipper truck, operated by Dorset County Council, at 10.14am on Thursday, July 24 last year.

The snowplough on the council truck pierced the motorhome cabin and completely crushed the driver’s side.

The motorhome driver’s wife Joyce Cooke was in the passenger’s seat and miraculously survived. She was taken to Southampton General Hospital by air ambulance with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

The driver of the county council truck, Steve Roper, from Weymouth, also suffered serious injuries and was taken to Poole Hospital.

Speaking at the inquest, Mr Roper, 40, said: ‘I just wish I could have done more. I keep playing it over and over again, thinking if only I had done this or that but nothing would have changed what happened unfortunately.’